


A Sequined Man in a Mesh Shirt

by Almighty_Carrots



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: But maybe gets a relationship, Dungeons and Dragons, Laslow is a stripper, Leo broadens his horizons, M/M, Odin dressing how he wants, Takumi has no friends, which is to say fabulously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 00:30:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16862851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Almighty_Carrots/pseuds/Almighty_Carrots
Summary: “Well look who’s sauntered home,” Camilla purrs when he gets in. She’s sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of steaming tea and a harlequin novel with absolutely no shame. “Busy night? I hope you remembered condoms.”“I… think a sequined man in a mesh shirt inducted me into a cult.” Leo recalls as clearly as he can. Camilla raises an eyebrow at him.“Good for you,” she sips her tea. “You broaden those horizons, little man.”





	A Sequined Man in a Mesh Shirt

**Author's Note:**

> Heya I'm actually really proud of this bit. I had a lot of fun. It's definitely nuanced to people who play table top rpgs but don't let that get you down!
> 
> Much love and enjoy :)

Leo isn’t sure how he went from being accosted in the street to sitting at a low table in an ominously lit living room with two women he’s never met before and a handful of dice. Odin waxes on about the mystical truth they must uncover in the world before them. A stack of hardcover books sits next to him on an end table draped in dark, embroidered cloth. “What?” Says Leo.

“You’re a wizard,” Odin declares, unhelpfully, thrusting several sheets of crumpled paper at him. “I could sense the intellectual magics within you the instant my sight laid upon you!” Leo looks to the other women at the table. The blue haired one doodles unhelpfully on the corner of her papers with a pencil. The muscular girl points at a row of numbers on Leo’s pages.

“You’ve got low hit points and no armour so you’re squishy. If you die he’ll make us start over so be careful.” She says it like an order.

“What?” Leo blinks. Odin throws one of the books at him. Leo narrowly avoids a broken nose, fumbling to catch it.

“Spells are at the back. You get two cantrips and six spells at first level.”

At one in the morning Leo wanders down two houses to where he lives. His legs are stiff from sitting for so many hours. He’s still not entirely sure what happened, aside from the fact that Effie is mad at him for dying.

“Well look who’s sauntered home,” Camilla purrs when he gets in. She’s sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of steaming tea and a harlequin novel with absolutely no shame. “Busy night? I hope you remembered condoms.”

“I… think a sequined man in a mesh shirt inducted me into a cult.” Leo recalls as clearly as he can. Camilla raises an eyebrow at him.

“Good for you,” she sips her tea. “You broaden those horizons, little man.”

 

All week Leo steams slightly over how quickly he lost and thinks of how much more efficiently he could have played his character. That Saturday he finds himself at Odin’s house no later than nine A.M. prepared to take his revenge. Odin is absolutely thrilled to see him, which is a reaction Leo has never garnered in anyone besides his little sister before. Leo gets the impression that Odin is much like a big, lonely puppy. A bit silly, eager to make friends, and liable to bowl you over in his excitement.

Leo stumbles through the steps to making his own wizard determinedly and finds it’s like a puzzle working out how to get the most out of his character’s abilities. Every time he looks up from the book to ask a question Odin is staring at him with shining eyes. He wears a tight, glitter encrusted t-shirt with the kind of plunging V-neck that you would expect to accompany cleavage. Odin has surprisingly well-defined biceps and Leo would be lying if he said that he wasn’t at least a little bit here to ogle. Revenge can be multi-purpose.

Effie and Setsuna arrive at noon. Effie rolls up a fresh fighter with the tired air of someone who has done this repeatedly. Setsuna plays the exact same ranger as last time only this one has red hair and a dragon tattoo. Their arrival marks the time for Odin to break out snacks and get down to business. Today they’re facing a clockwork murderer in a small hamlet.

“We died again,” Effie complains that evening as they walk down the steps.

“Why do you keep coming here if you hate it so much?” Leo asks. He doesn’t quite know what beyond muscles and competitive spirit is bringing him back, but Effie is obviously more miserable than sexually confused.

“He’s my calculus tutor. I don’t have to pay him as long as I keep coming to these. Next time stand behind me,” Effie grumps. “I’m the tank, that’s what I’m there for.”

“Next time don’t walk straight into the spellcaster’s lair without rolling a perception,” Leo huffs back. “I can’t stand behind you if you’re immobilized.”

“Well I don’t have an Arcana proficiency. That’s what the wizard is for!”

"You can still roll for it and add your INT even if you’re not proficient, everyone knows that!” Leo yells back. Effie looks like she might punch him in real life.

“Not to break up the fun here, but can I slip past you guys?” Odin’s roommate stands on the street holding a bag of vegetables in one hand and a pair of soft soled shoes in the other. Effie bikes away with ferocity and Leo huffs all the way down the street to his house.

Next week for sure, he’ll beat this stupid guy and that’ll be the end of this whole mess.

 

“You pry back the creaking floorboards to reveal… THE MYCONID ZOMBIE HORDE! Everyone roll initiative.” Today Odin wears a long-sleeved, black crop top. An obscene number of golden bangles dangle noisily on each of his arms. Leo will admit to being mildly fascinated by his belly button piercing.

“What’s a myconid?” Leo gives his two companions-in-weirdness a glance but neither of them seem to know. Odin cackles maniacally and waves an arm, bangles clanking on his wrist.

“The largest of the myconids burbles in a language you don’t speak, but it’s sinister intentions are clear!”

“No, seriously, what’s a myconid?”

Odin’s roommate peers over his shoulder at the tome Odin has open in his lap.“Giant sentient mushrooms,” he tells Leo before going back to his laptop. Laslow is good like that.

They defeat the myconid zombies by the skin of their teeth only to discover that the necromancer druid who created them was only using them as a distraction to break into the palace and take the duchess’ daughter hostage. Leo rubs his eyes, glancing at his watch. It’s already 7:30 and it feels like they’ve barely started. He startles when Odin closes his book with a thump. It takes him a minute to register Odin putting away his books and placing their character tokens in a wooden box.

“Are we done?” He asks.

“We won’t have time for the next part today,” Odin confirms. “We can pick back up next week.” Leo walks home wondering what a necromancer could gain from holding the duchy hostage.

“I’m looking at it wrong,” he announces to himself when Camilla notes he’s home early. “It’s not what a necromancer can get, it’s what a druid wants.”

“I take it back,” Camilla says. “You could stand to reign in those horizons.”

 

Odin opens the door wearing an open backed vest with blue and green plumage. Leo didn’t realize he found a well sculpted back so attractive. He helps set up the board and grab juice from the kitchen before the girls get there. It’s weird that he’s so comfortable wandering around Odin’s house when normally strangers put him on edge. He speculates it’s because Odin has an earnest air to him, like he has no shame in who he is or how he lives. A very non-judgemental vibe. It puts Leo at ease to be around him.

They save the girl and the necromancer is arrested and all is well that ends well. Except that Leo is now stuck in the awkward realization that if they stop having these little soirees he isn’t going to get to stare at Odin’s abs anymore, something he was growing accustomed to having in his weekly schedule. It feels oddly melancholic to leave without Odin calling, “See you next week!” behind him as Leo walks home.

Leo thinks about him non-stop. Sometimes with a blush rising on his cheeks. Enough so that when Niles whispers dirty things in his ear to get a rise out of him Leo hears it in Odin’s voice. Not his macho story telling persona, the softer voice he gets sometimes when Leo does something that truly surprises him in real life. Leo has to abruptly leave class to avoid eternal shame. Niles catches after class him on his way out of the bathroom, dying laughing.

“That’s it,” he says. “You are now and forever known as the guy who ran out of ECON to have a wank. I salute you.” He does a salute, right there in the hallway.

It’s all fun and games but Saturday morning Leo spends half an hour staring at his hair in the mirror without doing anything to it and even puts on just a tiny bit of body spray. And then he walks down to Odin’s house and knocks on the door. He brings flowers. Is it stupid to bring flowers? Odin’s a guy. What if he doesn’t like flowers? Leo nearly hyperventilates when he hears someone undoing the lock.

Laslow opens the door, looking blearily at the world in pajama pants. Night shift again, Leo thinks, and wonders if he woke him up. “Is Odin home?” Leo asks. Laslow blinks at him twice. For a long moment he says nothing.

“Mmm… yes?” His eyebrows furrow. “Were you guys playing today?” Laslow looks dreadfully confused. There’s a smear of neon lipstick on his neck. His eyelashes sparkle. Not for the first time Leo suspects Laslow’s job is exotic in nature.

“No. Could I speak to him? It’s important.” Leo grits his teeth to control his breaths. Laslow nods and wanders into the house, leaving the door open. With no further instruction forthcoming, Leo steps inside and closes the door. Laslow has disappeared down the hallway. Leo toes off his shoes and pads down the hall, peeking in every room he passes.

In the kitchen he finds Odin. He’s quietly sitting at the table drafting hemispheres onto a homemade map. He’s wearing a yellow belly shirt with poofy, slitted sleeves and a pair of earrings that dangle just slightly. When Leo walks in he looks up and smiles.

“Leo! The fates have smiled upon me today. I wasn’t expecting you. What manner of mysterious happenstance coerces you to my humble doorstep?”

“Would you go out with me?” Leo asks. He holds the flowers out in front of himself like a shield.

Odin swoops around the table. He doesn’t move when he stands in front of Leo. “Are you sure?” He questions, more serious than Leo has ever heard him. “People think I’m crazy and I’m not going to change that. Things aren’t the same out there as they are in here.”

“I think you’re good crazy.” Leo states imperiously, aggravated by the idea that Odin is so miraculously unique people would try to shame him for it. “People think a lot of things and in my experience most of them are stupid.” Odin smiles delicately and takes the flowers.

“Well then, I’d love to go out with you,” he says.

 

Leo admits he’s worried about the first time Odin and Niles meet. It’s only that Odin has wiggled his weird little way very firmly into Leo’s heart. And Niles is a species entirely of his own. He’s not family, but he’s closer than any friend Leo’s ever had. He’s the single person Leo could guaranteed call no matter where he was or what he’d done who would be there.

His worry is wasted on Odin, who immediately declares Niles’ eyepatch “Vogue” and insists they exchange phone numbers for “nefarious purposes” which Leo is certain means teaming up on him. Niles remains his surly and sexually deviant self until he needs to dodge their teaching assistant, whom Odin befuddles with dramatic flair whilst Niles makes his get away through a window. After this point Niles gives Odin his begrudging respect.

“Now all we need is a melee fighter and we’ll be set,” Odin declares one evening. He’s laying across the couch with his head on Leo’s lap while Leo pretends to be reading. He’ll admit it’s hard to focus on his book when Odin is touching him.

“What do you mean?"

“The classic trio: mage, fighter, rogue. You’re the mage. Niles is the rogue, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Leo nods. This is true. Once Leo locked himself out of his house and Niles shimmied open the lock with a pencil lead and his student ID.

“So now we need a fighter and we’ll have the full set. Good for just about any adventuring party. Sometimes I can get Silas to play because he’s too nice to say no, but it’d be good to find someone more permanent.” Leo thinks on it.

“Could they be an archer?” He asks.

 

“What?” Takumi sounds entirely unamused.

“Could you be convinced to play a tabletop RPG,” Leo repeats slower. “Once a week for an indefinite period of time.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because it would make my boyfriend happy,” Leo explains. “And you don’t have any friends in this whole city. I noticed.”

“Fuck off,” Takumi growls. He still takes the address from Leo.

 

“Ah yes! The delicate dedication of archery! I could tell from the moment I laid eyes upon you that your giftings lay in the domain of air!”

“What?” Takumi blinks.

“You’re a fighter,” Odin declares, unhelpfully, thrusting a hardcover book into Takumi’s abdomen. “Martial archetypes start at third level, you can wield any simple or martial weapon.” Takumi looks between Leo and Niles for help. Niles makes a lewd gesture at him and grins.

“You have high hit points and you can wear heavy armor,” Leo points to Takumi’s statistics. “So you take the most attacks. Try not to die, I’ve actually gotten attached to this character.”

“What?” Takumi repeats. Odin hands him a half dozen dice.

“Your adventure begins in a sprawling city,” Odin begins. “Here, the nobility grows fat and lazy in their carriages while the poor only gain increasing destitution and despair.”

“Eat the rich,” Niles heckles.

“It is in this tragic caste that you find yourselves, unfairly imprisoned for crimes against the unjust rulers of this desolate urbana who would seek to silence the truth you speak.”

It is late into the evening that Leo walks out to the gate with Takumi and Niles while Odin clears the game. “Did we just die?” Takumi asks, sounding a little stupefied.

“Yeah, that’s what happens when your fighter attacks from the back lines,” Leo replies.

“I’m playing an archer, I have disadvantage on attacks within five feet.”

“Well you have way more hit points and defense than my wizard!” 

“So take the blade singer subclass to get your defense up, it’s not rocket science!” Takumi huffs. Niles looks like he’s weighing the pros and cons of punching Takumi in real life.

“Not to break up the fun here, but I need to get into my house.” Laslow stands on the street, a backpack slung over one shoulder and a pair of red leather pumps in the other hand. Niles walks home in the same direction as Takumi. Leo can see the scrap that’s going to happen even before Takumi throws his bag onto the grass and shoves Niles.

Laslow looks where Leo is watching and hums. “Should we break that up?” It’s not entirely clear but Leo thinks Takumi might be winning.

“Nah,” he decides. “They’ll be fine.” He goes back inside to cuddle with his boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> There's another part to this being piddled away on about what Takumi and Niles got up to after their scrap but, ah, stories for another day. ;)


End file.
